DESTRUCTION | Zach Mitchell

Chapter Three • Tour guide

"Lift me up, I can't see" Gray asked his brother as he jumped as high as he could to see over the crowd of people. In a pen there were kids playing with all types of baby dinosaurs, Triceratops,  Apatosaurus and Parasaurolophus were just some of them.

"I'm not dad, and you're not five" Zach snapped as he walked away. Gray continued to jump and snap pictures as best as he could while following where Zach was heading.

"I can still ride the Triceratops. I'm 47 and a half inches" Gray told him excitedly at the thought of being close to a dinosaur. Zara, who had been following them around as a babysitter, stopped at the bleep of her phone. She stopped in her tracks and began talking on the phone.

"This place is for little kids" Zach sighed annoyed at everything.

"I don't know about that, just wait a few months and they'll be big enough to eat you, you won't be complaining then" a voice spoke up from behind them. They both jumped in surprise to see Adira standing with a cup of coffee with a Starbucks logo in her hand. Gray jumped in joy when he saw her as Zach stood obviously checking her out.

"Cover up your dork pouch" Zach whispered to Gray.

"Still in need of a tour guide?" she asked them as her she flicked her eyes in Zara's direction who stood unknowing to what they were doing, or planning.

"Scatter" Zach told his brother. He grabbed his arm in an attempt to make him run. Adira laughed as they sprinted through the large crowd of people out of Zara's sight. They slowed down to a jog unlike Gray who sprinted faster to a speaker at the sound of the T-Rex.

"You wanna' see the T-Rex feeding?" she asked when she and Zach caught up to him. "I could probably get us a good place to see" she told him.

"Yes! Yes! Please, come on!" he yelled excited before taking off in a dash in the direction of the T-Rex exhibit.

"You know, you and brother are nothing alike" she told Zach as they walked in the same direction Gray went in. She noticed his questioning look. "He's pretty excited about all this, whereas you act as if you're not on the same island as man eating dinosaurs" she elaborated with a smirk. Zach only responded with a roll of his eyes and kept quiet until they reached Gray who was once again trying to jump over the crowd of people at the window.

"Hey come with me" she told them. She lead them further down the hallway until stopping at a large grey door that read 'staff only'. She typed in a seven digit code and watched happily as the door made a clanking sound, showing it had unlocked. Gray jumped up and down in anticipation and decided in attacking her with questions as he waited.

"How long do you work here? What do you do? Do you get to see the dinosaurs? Do you think I could get a job?" he asked her all in one breath. She laughed as she pushed in the grey door and lead them to a large window that appeared to be higher than where they first were. They could look down on the goat that was tied up and they were about level with T-Rex's head.

"I'd love to answer all your questions, but I think you'd prefer to watch this instead" she told him. She heard the familiar stomping of the T-Rex and turned to see Gray's excited face. She literally thought he might burst. She only turned away when she heard Zach's phone ring. Whoever it was, he seemed annoyed. She gave him a look that told him he could go answer it, and so he turned away.

"You're doing pretty good kid, first time I saw this I puked" she told him as they watched the dinosaur bend down and chomp on the goat. Gray's face scrunched up at the sound but he still watched with awe.

"It's so cool" he breathed out. She nodded in agreement and smiled when the T-Rex stood up and looked at the window they were standing in.

"Hey girl, don't worry he's a friend" she told the dinosaur he watched them. She often visited the T-Rex, at first it was in awe but after time she had some sort of weird bond with her. She wasn't sure if she recognised her. She was after all, something to eat, but she liked to think that she knew her.

Gray jumped back in fear as the massive animal continued to look in the window as it finished chomping on the goat it had.

"Don't worry she can't hurt us, I'd like to think she wouldn't, but that's not true. Never underestimate them, they're wild hungry creatures" she told him. She wasn't sure why she was telling him the obvious but it felt nice to talk to someone who understood her love for them.

"Did you know they can sprint up to 20 mph?" he asked as he began going through facts in his head. She nodded her head and continued to listen to the facts he had about dinosaurs as they waited for Zach to come back after the T-Rex had stomped away. She smiled and pretended to not know some of his facts, even if she did. He was a nice boy.

"Shut up Gray" Zach said annoyed when he finally returned. He was afraid that Gray would annoy the pretty girl and she'd leave.

"Hey, he was giving me some pretty interesting information" she defended with a small smile. Gray nodded triumphantly as he took some final shots of the left over goat. 

"I wanna hide the truth, I wanna shelter you, but with the beast inside, there's nowhere we can hide" she quoted as her face scrunched at the sight of the blood left over from the now eaten goat.

"Imagine Dragons" Zach spoke up from where he stood next to her.

"I feel like it fits our situation in more ways than metaphorically"